2 Peter 3:17 - Exposition

Ye therefore, beloved, seeing that ye know these things before. The pronoun "ye" is emphatic; others have gone astray; "continue ye faithful." The construction is participial, and there is no expressed object; literally, "knowing before," i.e., that false teachers will arise. Beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness; rather, as in the Revised Version, lest, being carried away … ye fall. It is interesting to notice that the word rendered "led or carried away" is used by St. Paul, in Galatians 2:13 , of St. Barnabas, who, along with St. Peter himself, was then "carried away" with the dissimulation of the Judaizers. The word rendered "wicked," rather "lawless," is used elsewhere in the New Testament only in Galatians 2:7 . The word for "steadfastness" ( στηριγμός ) occurs only here.